Planning Christmas Build

[adawg88]

My kid (12) is really getting in to gaming and programming and has asked for a nice component built system. He wants experience working with hardware.

He also wants it to be a system he can game on. Right now he plays a lot of Fortnite and League of Legends - but wants to get into more gaming.

I'd like to keep the system around $1500, inclusive of a monitor if possible. If needed, we can get him most of the stuff for Christmas and the rest for his birthday a few months later.

Appreciate the suggestions.

 

[USAFRet]

My kid (12) is really getting in to gaming and programming and has asked for a nice component built system. He wants experience working with hardware.

He also wants it to be a system he can game on. Right now he plays a lot of Fortnite and League of Legends - but wants to get into more gaming.

I'd like to keep the system around $1500, inclusive of a monitor if possible. If needed, we can get him most of the stuff for Christmas and the rest for his birthday a few months later.

Appreciate the suggestions.

It's actually much too early to spec a system for Christmastime. Whatever parts you might list today may be cheaper, or superseded, by what is available several months from now.

 

[why_wolf]

Agreed its far to early to shop for parts now if your actual timeline is xmas time. Prices and availability can change alot between now and then. You should also focus on getting a complete system in one go so you can be sure none of the parts are DOA so you can return them easily. The exception being the monitor, maybe save that for the birthday, this is assuming the birthday is several months later than xmas.

To at least give you a general idea of what tier to look for once you get closer to purchase time (again prices will absolutely change by xmas time). This build leaves you $500 left for the monitor and Windows 10 license. Side note I"d lay off getting em a gaming keyboard/mouse they aren't that expensive but they're the kind of item a kid should be able to save their allowance up for, so I'd encourage doing that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor ($179.00 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: MSI - B360M BAZOOKA Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($137.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: MyDigitalSSD - BPX 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Mini Video Card ($399.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake - Core G21 Tempered Glass Edition ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.90 @ Newegg)
Total: $1051.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-24 23:13 EDT-0400

 

[USAFRet]

My kid (12) is really getting in to gaming and programming and has asked for a nice component built system. He wants experience working with hardware.

And this part is VERY rewarding.

I did the same with my 11 year old grandson a couple of years ago.
Mid November, asked him over to "help" me build a new PC.
He did 95% of the assembly.

Little did he know that this was going to be "his" system.
Christmas morning, when he opened that big box..."Mom! I made this!"

 

[coozie7]

@ USAFRet: Sir, you have made my day.

@ adawg88: There's a LOT of new stuff coming out between now and December, I suggest you hold off on making any parts lists until you're closer to the actual build/purchase date and repost here then for up-to-date advice.

In the meantime, both you and your son should do some research on the build/assembly, there is masses of tutorials on YouTube and Newegg also hosts some excellent videos on the subject, watching them will help familiarise you with the process and terminology involved.
To further get the hang of handling parts, why not look for a old system you can both play with? Maybe there's an ancient Dell at work tucked away they'll be glad for you to take away while Craiglist and E-bay can turn up some useful, cheap systems that you can both experiment with and, maybe, salvage a few parts off.

Most tutorials miss out on some simple, common sense advice: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3716792/time-builder-questions.html

 

[adawg88]

Just wanted to stop in and say thanks to everyone who responded. Really looking forward to this project with him. I have some experience building systems, I built my last 2 desktops, but it has been a couple years since I built anything.

I'll spend some time reading up and will check back with you fine folks closer to Christmas.